


you told me this is right where it begins (just want to feel your lips against my skin)

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: my tiny ass fandom fest [2]
Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012)
Genre: Adam just wants to be normal, Art, Asexual Character, Boys Kissing, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Ordinary lives, Romance, all the davenkids are queer, and it's a lot less actiony than bree or chase's, fucking deal with it, gay Owen, here's the Adam-centric story, like what else would that boy be, not everyone has to be a hero, panromantic asexual adam, panromantic character, shock right, this is the good timeline, where all the children are happy, who can blame him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-06 10:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17343602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Adam’s feelings are really confusing.He likes boys, and he likes girls. He's not like Bree who only likes girls, or Chase who only likes boys. He thinks that long hair and dresses are pretty, but so are abs and short hair. He likes hard lines just as much as he does curves- he has no sexual attraction to them, but he does want to kiss the faces they’re attracted to.-Adam meets Owen on the first day of senior year. Owen is the new kid with the fast way of speaking and an even faster way of creating.There's something so mesmerizing about Owen’s long, talented fingers, about the way he gestures excitedly when talking and always has something passionate to say. And he always seems to be excited- there isn’t a single thing that doesn’t have the power to get Owen fired up. Whether it’s art or the school system or a school dance, Owen can never seem to slow down or be quiet.When Adam looks at Owen, he sees a masterpiece. He sees everything that the world thinks he doesn't, understands things better when Owen is explaining them. When Owen's fingers are moving, when his lips are speaking a million miles a minute, the world makes all the sense that it didn't before.





	you told me this is right where it begins (just want to feel your lips against my skin)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duck_Life](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/gifts).



> Title is from "Is There Somewhere" by Halsey, which I listened to while writing this fic.
> 
> Here's to entry #3 in my tiny ass fandom fest, which consists of as many fics as I can write from fandoms with less than 900 fics. I'm going to try to write at least one fic a day, each from a different fandom, but I have a feeling that some days will have more than one while some will have less. For example, today had two while yesterday had none. I guess the cards will fall where they lay, and who knows what may happen.
> 
> So this is my first fic in this tiny-fandom fest from a fandom I've already worked in, so maybe that will make things different. Hope it's still the same level of quality!
> 
> Fics so far in the fandom at the time of writing: 323  
> Fics in the fandom so far that I've written besides this one: 6

_believe in the mouth, in the bottom lip trembling beneath your thumb, suddenly something holy, suddenly something loved._

_unplanned, unforeseen, like lightning striking the pine, setting the entire night on fire._

_and every electrical nerve lights through your skin._

- **Emily Palermo,** _ **Before The Ghost Girl Was A Ghost Girl**_

 

Adam’s feelings are really confusing.

He likes boys, and he likes girls. He's not like Bree who only likes girls, or Chase who only likes boys. He thinks that long hair and dresses are pretty, but so are abs and short hair. He likes hard lines just as much as he does curves- he has no sexual attraction to them, but he does want to kiss the faces they’re attracted to.

-

Adam meets Owen on the first day of senior year. Owen is the new kid with the fast way of speaking and an even faster way of creating.

There's something so mesmerizing about Owen’s long, talented fingers, about the way he gestures excitedly when talking and always has something passionate to say. And he _always_ seems to be excited- there isn’t a single thing that doesn’t have the power to get Owen fired up. Whether it’s art or the school system or a school dance, Owen can never seem to slow down or be quiet.

When Adam looks at Owen, he sees a masterpiece. He sees everything that the world thinks he doesn't, understands things better when Owen is explaining them. When Owen's fingers are moving, when his lips are speaking a million miles a minute, the world makes all the sense that it didn't before. 

Owen works as a barista in his free time, when he's not working on his art. When Adam asks, he says that he's saving up for something. He never specifies what, but Adam doesn't ask. Instead, he just enjoys the fact that Owen has a patience with him that very few people do. He doesn't care that Adam’s way of thinking is slower or different than most people's- instead, he just steps forward to engage Adam in a way that Adam can get. He uses his art to help explain things to Adam, to create new meaning where old didn't exist.

- 

When Adam and his family are exposed to the world, he's so close to asking Owen out. He's even got it all planned out, a trip to the travelling exhibit on glass art at the local art museum and then a trip to the park afterward, where they can grab food from the food trucks and Owen can explain to Adam all he wants about the beauty of nature. It's going to be really awesome, Adam knows it.

But then the world flips on its head, and the bionic army arrives, and then there’s a bionic island and Adam barely gets the chance to graduate, much less catch up with Owen.

Adam tries not to think about Mission Creek while on the Island, and for the most part it's pretty easy. Adam's thoughts are slow and have trouble focusing on more than one thing at once, and not thinking about Owen is easy.

It takes a year before the Bionic Island becomes unnecessary again, and in that time Owen graduates from Mission Creek High. Adam's pretty sure that when he sees Owen again, it won't be anywhere near their high school.

After everything's done, after all the kids have been integrated into their own personal mission teams and Bree and Chase are part of the Elite Force (and Bree and Chase both have their own girlfriend and boyfriend), Adam heads back to Mission Creek. He’s done with heroics and missions for as long as he can be. All he wants is to go home, to sleep in his capsule back at the mansion and to get to just be...ordinary. Well, as ordinary as someone with bionics can be.

And so he heads to Owen's coffee shop, for old times' sake, for that sense of normalcy. To his surprise he finds Owen still there, working that barista job, still saving up money for that something.

Owen is so fucking different than Kaz or Alex, than any hero the team met over the past year. He has no bionics, is no superhero, is nothing extraordinary in powers or science.

But to Adam, Owen is nothing but extraordinary. His passion, his talent, his sheer excitement over everything- there's everything and nothing normal about him.

Adam walks up to the counter, dressed in normal, casual clothing that he really missed when living on the island. Yeah, being a mentor was great and all, but nothing feels better than a good pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a nice sweater or jacket.

Owen looks at him, and Adam goes to say something but Owen beats into it. “Good to see you again, Adam,” Owen says with a smile. “It's been awhile.”

Adam blinks. He's not exactly sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't something as casual as that. He'd expected Owen to at least freak out a bit over his powers or the fact that he just spent the last year living on a bionic Island. Instead, Owen is just staring at him with that same warm smile as he always did.

“Yeah, it has,” Adam agrees.

“Been up to much?” Owen asks.

“Probably not compared to you,” Adam replies.

“Do you think you'd want to go on a date sometime?” Adam blurts, because he's never had any tact, because he's not about to wallow through the months of questioning that his brother did. There's not exactly anything to be afraid of. Either Owen says yes or he doesn't.

Owen smiles. “I'd love to,” he says, and Adam blinks.

“Really?” He asks, “Awesome!”

“I get off of my shift at 5. Would six work for you?”

Any time would work for Adam- he doesn’t exactly have work or school anymore. As long as he gets to hand out with Owen, with his storytelling fingers and magical lips and bright eyes, he's happy.

-

The date goes great. They go the museum, where the exhibit is on costumes in movies rather than glass but Owen still finds a million things to talk about, and then they take a walk in the park where Owen shows Adam his favorite taco truck, run by his stepcousin, Alejandra, and his stepuncle Rafael, and asks Adam about his life as the sun goes down.

The end of the night finds Owen and Adam hanging out at the Davenport house.

They're at home, and Owen’s eyes are the color of espresso beans, and his lips are so, so plump and red, and Adam just wants to kiss him-

So he leans in and does so.

And this is Adam's first kiss, and it's a bit awkward, but he doesn't really mind, because this is the boy he's had a crush on for a few years now, and Owen’s lips taste like butter which is really fucking tasty-

When their lips part, Owen looks up at him with his dark, espresso bean eyes. “That was really good,” Owen says, and Adam really has to agree. 

Adam isn't being some great person like his siblings are, changing the world and saving people. He isn't part of the Elite Force, isn't really running many missions anymore. He's just living at home, trying to be some kind of normal young adult. Sure, he's got super strength and laser vision in blastwave ability, but he's not choosing to do anything too crazy with it. Instead, he's just staring at a cute boy whose fingers can create entire worlds and his lips can make Adam forget where he is. (And if those aren't some damn good superpowers, Adam doesn't know what are.)

“Want to keep going?” Owen asks, a glint in his eyes, and Adam grins.

“Sure,” he says.

They keep going, Owen's hands on the back of Adam's neck and in the base of his hair, and Adam's hands at Owen's waist. For once Adam is completely okay with the fact that it's hard for him to focus on more than one thing at once. The world is fading away, leaving behind only Owen, the taste of his lips and the smell of his hair and the feeling of his torso under Adam's hands.

Owen's muscles flex under the plaid button-down and cardigan he's wearing, and Adam has never felt less like calling plaid dorky. Owen is passionate, the very embodiment of art in human form. There is nothing dorky or geeky about that- instead, Adam thinks it's something brave.

“Um, boys?” comes a familiar voice, and Adam breaks apart from kissing Owen to find that Tasha has just entered the front door purse in hand. 

Shit. “Sorry, Tasha,” Adam nearly shouts, not wanting to get a scolding from his stepmom.

Tasha just shrugs. “You're an adult,” she says, “You can get up to what you want in your free time. She locks eyes with Owen. “You treat him right, kid,” she says, and Adam nearly smiles. It's nice to know that Tasha is looking out for him.

Owen just smiles that awkwardly charming smile of his. “Of course, ma'am,” he says. “I'll treat him like I would treat the Mona Lisa, because he's just as much of a masterpiece to me.”

And Adam is pretty sure he is dying a bit on the inside, because no one’s ever said anything like that about him. Calling him things like Superman and Hercules, sure, everything to do with his strength, but the Mona Lisa? Something creative and delicate, a masterpiece renowned the world over as a shining example of beauty? That’s not something he really gets to hear.

“Good to hear,” Tasha says, then gives them a smile. "Carry on with your makeout session, then. Be young." She then heads on through to the hallway leading to her bedroom, and Adam turns back to Owen, who is smiling at him fondly.

"I like your stepmom. She's not too overbearing, unlike most adults who don't seem to understand the youth anymore."

"Hopefully not more than you like me, right?" Adam asks, and Owen rolls his eyes.

"Of course not," Owen says, stepping forward, and then they're kissing again.

-

Adam is still so young. They all are. Some of his family are using their youth to fight crime, to change the world, and Adam is sitting here in the shed out back of Owen's  _padrasto_ 's house, a plate of enchiladas on the table next to him and a half-formed puppet in his lap. It is such a delicate thing he is creating, something he never would have thought his large, destructive hands capable of.

But Owen's in front of him, building a mini theatre for the the abstract puppets. Adam had offered to help build using his super strength, but Owen asked Adam to help with the puppets so that's what Adam's doing. He's  _creating_ , making a world out of the small pieces in his hands, and that's something he never got to do when he was the muscle for the team missions.

"Hand me an enchilada?" Owen says from behind one of the mini-theatre's uprights, and Adam carefully sits down the puppet in order to pick up the plate and bring it over to Owen. Owen accepts an enchilada with a smile and a quick " _gracias_ " before Adam returns to his seat.

He picks up another piece of metal for the puppet's face and bends it slowly, gently, before shaping it onto the puppet. He thinks he's going to name it Evie. After all, there are already Davenports with names that begin with the first for letters of the alphabet- it only makes sense to start off his puppet with the next stage.

-

Adam turns on the tv one day and sees Chase and Bree on the news, hunting down supervillains, and while he's proud of them he doesn't want anything to do with heroics anymore.

“Those your siblings?” Owen asks from the other side of the sofa, where he’s busy sculpting butter into what Adam’s pretty sure is a giant bust of Tasha. He’s not quite certain, but whatever it ends up being Adam can’t wait to see it. Owen is so talented, carrying such magic in his fingers.

Adam nods. “Used to be me, too.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” Owen says, somehow knowing exactly what the perfect thing to say is.

“I’m glad I’m here too.” And he is- he doesn't want to be a hero anymore, risking his life everyday like his brother and sister do. Adam just wants to spend his days hanging out with Owen and helping out Tasha, being nothing more than a little bit above ordinary. 

Owen gives him a crooked smile. “Come over and give me a kiss,” he says, “Don’t worry, I won’t get butter on you.”

Adam’s already on his way over. He doesn’t care about the butter. He couldn’t give less of a shit about the butter, when Owen is looking at him with those bright eyes and that adoring smile.

He leans in and Owen's lips still taste like butter, just like they did the first time they kissed, and Adam's starting to wonder if it has less to do with what Owen likes to eat and more to do with what he likes to create. And Adam's completely cool with that.

"Thank you, Adam," Owen says when they break apart from the kiss, and Adam raises an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For being you," Owen says, and despite the fact that the statement has no context it somehow makes sense.

"Same to you," Adam says, and he means every word.

 

_The rules say our emotions don't comply_  
_But we'll defy the rules until we die_

 _So let's be sinners to be saints_  
_And let's be winners by mistake_  
_The world may disapprove_  
_But my world is only you_  
_And if we're sinners then it feels like heaven to me_

 

_- **Lauren Aquilina,**_ **Sinners**


End file.
